Stars in a Time Warp

Follow by Email

Followers

About Me

I've owned my quilt shop since 1990, specializing in antique reproduction fabrics. Made my first quilt in 1976 which greatly reduced my sewing of clothing! Would like to find more time to SEW.......maybe when I retire? Am married to a farmer, have 3 children and 4 grandchildren who are the light of my life!!!

Ann Robinson Bedcover
-
This bedcover is one of the earliest quilts in the Shelburne Museum
collection, and is on the cover of the book Enduring Grace, Quilts from the
Shelburn...

3 years ago

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Charm Quilts #6 and Triangles

More charm quilts from the New England Quilt Museum exhibit in Lowell MA. Current exhibit is Rhode Island quilts.

This little charmer was made by Pat Nickols, owner of many of the charm quilts in the exhibit.

Always interesting to see tho I have seen it many times, the Boston Pavement (aka tile quilt) is in the permanent collection of the museum.

Small quilts are always a favorite of mine.

Even simple squares make beautiful quilts!!

This is a Millenium Charm Quilt.

This is a unique touch....she had a square postmarked!

Postage Stamp quilts are another favorite (yes....I have a Lot of Favorites!)

Sorry for the blurriness!

And there are still more Charm Quilts from the exhibit to comeThe following is my method for making the Second Triangle border on my Medallion Quilt. I did not want to follow the easy directions from Fons & Porter because that would yield me 4 Triangles alike and I wanted all to be different (nothing new there!). So this is the RoundAbout way I approached it using only my trusty 6.5" square ruler from Creative Grids. Not being a ruler collector as much as a fabric collector, I have only the squares in several sizes and the very necessary 6.5" x 24"!

Some Fabric choices for the lights...guess I failed to take a picture of the darks...

First I drew a 7-1/4" square on 1/4" graph paper (the size the pattern called for to be cut into four quarter square triangles). Then drew in the diagonal lines which would have been the cutting lines for fabric. Placed my ruler over a single triangle until it fit perfectly.....now I know the size I need to cut: 3-5/8" x 7-1/4" rectangles. The ruler shows that the lower corners need to be at 5-1/8".

First fabric triangle seems to fit perfectly! The proof will be when I finish a row to be attached to the Half Square Triangle border!

Cutting another triangle from the rectangle.............

Soon discovered I needed only 3-5/8" strips.....making sure the lower corners were at the 5-1/8" mark worked fine!

Selecting the lights and darks for the first border............I like "busy" fabrics for both the lights and the darks. In original pattern in the magazine, it looks like the same light fabric was used for the entire Triangle border, and it was beautiful fabric, but I like the variety!

I check corners to be sure they are square......see how the diagonal line on the ruler follows the diagonal sewing line and the edges align with the ruler? Good indication that things are as they should be.

Sewed alternating light and dark triangles......make sure you "offset" the triangles so that there is 1/4" seam allowance point on both ends of the seam. Most points are fine and the ones that aren't? I will live with them........

8 comments:

Thanks for the tutorial! I have trouble getting that quarter-inch offset correct when sewing the triangles together. My points are always blunted. Love that crazy orange-red-blue serpentine stripe fabric! (Is there a name for this border, other than "half-square triangle border"?)

Very useful tutorial. I've never put a triangle border together but it is very nice and I like yours a lot so I just might try that on a quilt soon. Thanks for sharing the wonderful charm quilts too. I have enjoyed every single picture.